650 / GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON
And terrible ordeal, and such penance As in itself hath power upon the air, And spirits that do compass air and earth, Space, and the peopled infinite, I made
90 Mine eyes familiar with Eternity, Such as, before me, did the Magi,5 and He who from out their fountain dwellings raised Eros and Anteros, at Gadara,6 As I do thee;?and with my knowledge grew
95 The thirst of knowledge, and the power and joy
Of this most bright intelligence, until? WITCH Proceed. MANFRED Oh! I but thus prolonged my words,
Boasting these idle attributes, because As I approach the core of my heart's grief?
ioo But to my task. I have not named to thee Father or mother, mistress, friend, or being, With whom I wore the chain of human ties; If I had such, they seem'd not such to me? Yet there was one?
WITCH Spare not thyself?proceed.
105 MANFRED She was like me in lineaments?her eyes, Her hair, her features, all, to the very tone Even of her voice, they said were like to mine; But soften'd all, and temper'd into beauty; She had the same lone thoughts and wanderings,
no The quest of hidden knowledge, and a mind To comprehend the universe: nor these Alone, but with them gentler powers than mine, Pity, and smiles, and tears?which I had not; And tenderness?but that I had for her;
115 Humility?and that I never had. Her faults were mine?her virtues were her own? I loved her, and destroy'd her!
WITCH With thy hand? MANFRED Not with my hand, but heart?which broke her heart? It gazed on mine, and withered. I have shed 120 Blood, but not hers?and yet her blood was shed-? I saw?and could not staunch it.
WITCH And for this-? A being of the race thou dost despise, The order which thine own would rise above, Mingling with us and ours, thou dost forego
125 The gifts of our great knowledge, and shrink'st back To recreant' mortality?Away! cowardly MANFRED Daughter of Air! I tell thee, since that hour? But words are breath?look on me in my sleep,
5. Masters of occult knowledge (plural of magus). opher, who called up Eros, god of love, and 6. Byron's note to lines 92?93 identifies this figure Anteros, god of unrequited love, from the hot as Iamblicus, the 4th-century Neoplatonic philos-springs named after them at Gadara, in Syria.
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IMANFRED, ACT 2 / 65 1
Or watch my watchings?Come and sit by me!
130 My solitude is solitude no more, But peopled with the Furies;?I have gnash'd My teeth in darkness till returning morn, Then cursed myself till sunset;?I have pray'd For madness as a blessing?'tis denied me.
135 I have affronted death?but in the war Of elements the waters shrunk from me, And fatal things pass'd harmless?the cold hand Of an all-pitiless demon held me back, Back by a single hair, which would not break.
MO In phantasy, imagination, all The affluence of my soul?which one day was A Croesus in creation7?I plunged deep, But, like an ebbing wave, it dash'd me back Into the gulf of my unfathom'd thought.
145 I plunged amidst mankind?Forgetfulness I sought in all, save where 'tis to be found, And that I have to learn?my sciences,8 My long pursued and super-human art, Is mortal here?I dwell in my despair? And live?and live for ever.
150 WITCH It may be
That I can aid thee.
MANFRED To do this thy power Must wake the dead, or lay me low with them. Do so?in any shape?in any hour? With any torture?so it be the last.
155 WITCH That is not in my province; but if thou Wilt swear obedience to my will, and do My bidding, it may help thee to thy wishes.
MANFRED I will not swear?-Obey! and whom? the spirits Whose presence I command, and be the slave Of those who served me?Never!
160 WITCH Is this all? Hast thou no gentler answer?Yet bethink thee, And pause ere thou rejectest.
MANFRED I have said it. WITCH Enough!-?I may retire then?say! MANFRED Retire!
[The WITCH disappears.] MANFRED [alone] We are the fools of time and terror: Days
165 Steal on us and steal from us; yet we live, Loathing our life, and dreading still to die. In all the days of this detested yoke? This heaving burthen, this accursed breath? This vital weight upon the struggling heart,
7. I.e., my imagination had at one time been, in for a death that is denied him, is modeled on the its creative powers, as rich as King Croesus (the legend, often treated in Romantic literature, of the legendary monarch famed for his wealth). Man- Wandering Jew. fred's self-description in this passage, as longing 8. Occult bodies of knowledge.
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652 / GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON
170 Which sinks with sorrow, or beats quick with pain, Or joy that ends in agony or faintness-? In all the days of past and future, for In life there is no present, we can number How few?how less than few?wherein the soul
